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20 basic rules to a successful match


Hardball

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Rule #1. Bring a gun that runs.

Rule #2. Bring Magazines that work.

Rule #3. Bring ammo that has been thoroughly inspected.

Rule #4. Bring a clear mind, leave work at work.

Rule #5. Keep in mind that if you aren't learning, you're doing it wrong.

Rule #6. Your way isn't necessarily the right way, but what is comfortable to you. Rule #7. Ask questions to everyone.

Rule #8. When the going gets tough, the tough bring a .45 (Just for kicks).

Rule #9. Know yourself.

Rule #10. Know your limitations and hide them well.

Rule #11. Remember that, when you have forgotten Rule #1, it is time to become the fastest bolt action pistol shooter in the world.

Rule #12. Remember that everyone on the range is your friend.

Rule #13. Remember that Rule #12 only applies when you aren't shooting.

Rule #14. Remember that politics don't matter when bullets fly. (Good rule in life as well.)

Rule #15. You will do as well as you have prepared.

Rule #16. Positive thinking can often overcome lack of confidence, but a lack of skill will always overcome everything else.

Rule #17. Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. (Stole that one.)

Rule #18. A relaxed mind is an open mind.

Rule #19. An open mind is a channel to improvement.

Rule # 20. It doesn't matter where you have placed, as long as you have improved on your prior performance.This means that you paid attention to Rule #5.

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  • 8 years later...

21. You are there to help the match run, just like everyone else - it is an all volunteer sport.

22. Check your scores. No one is trying to screw you out of points, but everyone can make an honest mistake.

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expansion of rule #4: Where ever you are, be all there. Thinking about work at a match helps neither. Thinking about the last stage will not help this stage - as long as you learned from the last stage. Don't focus on your mistakes beyond using them as a tool for improvement. In your main, feast on your successes.

Mark K.

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Having fun really does count for a great deal. The positive attitude from 99.9% of participants is why I take it so seriously. Sounds like a dichotomy but if the sport sucked, so would the people who play it. It's always a pleasure to shoot a match with the really classy people our sport attracts. When the weather is crap, we ignore it. When guns give up, we share with the people we compete with. My .02. :bow:

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  • 1 month later...

Times being what they are, I loaded 250 Winchester and 250 RP brass for the recent Indiana State match. I had a failure to extract and zeroed a 160 pt stage. That piece of brass was SB. I have no idea how it got in there, and it was the only one. But I do know that I'll be looking at each and every piece in the future for big matches. Rule # 3 is now my credo!!!!!

Edited to say: Also, I went 164.1(minor) at A6 in April. So that's 0 for 2 on major matches this year, $$ spent I am afraid to add up, and all that practice and time that sometimes feels wasted because of the FAILURE OF AMMO...........ALL RELATED TO RULE #3.

Edited by fourtrax
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expansion of rule #4: Where ever you are, be all there. Thinking about work at a match helps neither. Thinking about the last stage will not help this stage - as long as you learned from the last stage. Don't focus on your mistakes beyond using them as a tool for improvement. In your main, feast on your successes.

Mark K.

This rule got reinforced for me today. I completely blew up a stage today because I didn't focus on the task at hand.

My brain was still in the previous 5 minutes. I was thinking about the guy I had just DQ'd a few minutes previously when he did a reload and then turned up range and had the gun pointing directly at me. surprise.gif That muzzle looked big and black and the only comforting thing was seeing the trigger finger indexed on the frame. His reload had not coincided with his plan, and so he was looking for the targets he should have shot first before doing the reload.

When I got to that same spot on the stage, I ejected a perfectly good mag because I was thinking about reloads. This forced me to do an unplanned reload. (People said they could hear me yell "Nuts!" all the way to the back of the bay.) At that point my brain went into overdrive trying to figure out if I had enough mags to finish the stage. For me, when the brain kicks in, I stop watching the sights and calling my shots. I ended up collecting several mikes on paper after that point. Good thing I ended on a plate rack which gives positive feedback for hits... 9 shots to knock down 6 plates. wacko.gif

So the other lesson reinforced today was something that Brian Enos posted yesterday: "When the going gets tough, call your shots."

Edited by Skydiver
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My brain was still in the previous 5 minutes. I was thinking about the guy I had just DQ'd a few minutes previously when he did a reload and then turned up range and had the gun pointing directly at me. surprise.gif That muzzle looked big and black and the only comforting thing was seeing the trigger finger indexed on the frame.

yeah man hurl yourself behind some of them plastic barrels and TAKE COVA

5454992.jpg

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